The present invention relates to an improved skate assembly, and more particularly to an improved skate assembly which permits rapid, secure, and convenient interchange between ice blades and in-line rollers. The arrangement is designed to provide rigid, solid and secure attachment between the shoe and the blade element, regardless of whether the blade is an ice blade or an in-line roller frame. As a further feature of the invention, roller frames are adjustable in the length dimension to accommodate more than one shoe size.
Skates having interchangeable blades have been known in the past. These devices, having interchangeable features, have typically required extensive and/or cumbersome effort in order to accomplish and/or achieve the change. Furthermore, while utilization of one size blade to be accommodated on different shoe sizes has been accomplished with ice blades, such a feature has been achieved only with a certain amount of difficulty with rollers, particularly in-line rollers. The arrangement of the present invention, in addition to providing a secure and sound coupling between the shoe and the surface blade support member, also provides a means for adjusting the length of the in-line roller support frame so as to permit the utilization of a limited number of blade designs and manufactured lengths for accommodating a variety of shoe sizes. Such an arrangement permits the user to achieve a better balance along with a blade availability which can accommodate a variety of different preferences with respect to blade design, configuration, wheel count, and the like.
A common disadvantage in the utilization of interchangeable blades is that of achieving a firm attachment between the shoe and the blade frame. Specifically, it has been known that any looseness or play in the attachment can contribute to unsatisfactory performance. The present arrangement, by contrast, provides a firm, sound, and otherwise appropriate means for achieving secure releasable attachment between the shoe and the blade frame, with the in-line roller frame being designed to provide an adjustable length feature as well. Additionally, the design of the attachment pedestal secured to the shoe portion is at least partially in the form of an inverted truncated pyramid, thereby enhancing the stability and rigidity of the coupling arrangement.
Further, it is well-known that in-line skate wheel assemblies typically wear unevenly during use. Thus, it is desirable to provide a convertible skate assembly which provides for having a reversible blade assembly to extend the useful life of the wheel assembly. Further yet, there is a need to provide an attachment mechanism which does not require additional tools to facilitate adapting and securing the reversible blade assembly to the boot mounting brackets.